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On March 2, 1942, four months after the U.S. entered WWII, farmers living between Marion-Williamsport and Marseilles-Galion Roads and between State Route 98 and the Norfolk & Western Railroad were notified to vacate their farms by the first of May. This displaced approximately 126 farm families from over 12,600 acres so that a munitions factory could be built. The site included the administration area, cafeteria, fire and police stations, and a hospital, in addition to the widely dispersed powder houses and the production lines. Manufacturing began in the fall of 1942. The plant’s operators included U.S. Rubber, Atlas Powder, the Permanente Metals Division of the Kaiser Corporation, Kilgore Manufacturing, and Ferro Enamel, who made bombs until August 14, 1945 — VJ Day. (Continued other side)
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During the War of 1812, Northwestern Army Commander General William Henry Harrison led troops through northwest Ohio on the way to Detroit and Ft. Malden in Michigan. After the decimation of General James Winchester’s division at Frenchtown (Monroe, Michigan) by British and Indian forces, Harrison retreated and led his troops southward to the Portage River. Near this site, now the William Henry Harrison Park, Harrison’s men waited for supplies and reinforcements, which were delayed due to heavy rains and flooding in the Black Swamp. With the addition of General Leftwich’s brigade at the end of January 1813, Harrison’s forces reached approximately 1,700. The troops endured the harsh, wet weather and several soldiers died of exposure and were buried at the camp. Once the winter freeze set in, Harrison led the remaining troops to the rapids of the Maumee River where construction of Fort Meigs began.
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Officially opening on August 4, 1840, the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal followed the route of present railroad tracks through Munroe Falls approximately one thousand feet south of this marker. This 82-mile long "feeder canal" connected the Beaver Valley canal system at New Castle, Pennsylvania with the Ohio and Erie Canal in Akron, thereby linking Pittsburgh with Cleveland and the western Great Lakes. Many communities along the canal’s path became linked to national and world commerce through their establishment as canal ports. New England investor Edmund Munroe purchased property and water rights along the canal’s proposed route, and in 1837 established the Munroe Falls Manufacturing Company. The village of Munroe Falls grew around the manufacturing company site and was incorporated on October 26, 1838. When this section of the canal closed in 1869, the waterway through Munroe Falls was filled and railroad tracks were laid over its path. A portion of the canal bed is still visible east of State Route 91.
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On January 31, 1798, Joseph Howland bought Township 4-Range 3 (Howland Twp.) for $12, 903.23 and an equalizing portion of Township 1-Range 10 (Springfield Twp.) as part of a lottery held to distribute Connecticut’s Western Reserve lands. On February 26, 1803, Dr. John Seely bought 85 acres of the Howland Township acreage that included a mineral springs and developed it into a health spa for the treatment of “scrofulous & dyspeptic diseases”. The spa became the Township’s center for culture and recreation with future Presidents James A. Garfield and William McKinley reported as frequent Howland Springs visitors. In 1873, the Shedd brothers built a three-story hotel south of the springs with a dance hall, billiard room, and bowling alley. The hotel flourished until fire destroyed it on June 16, 1882; consequently recreational use of the springs diminished. Today, the sale of spring water throughout northeastern Ohio makes Howland Springs the oldest continuous business in Howland Township.
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Fawcettstown, later to become East Liverpool, marked the first Ohio community to be encountered by early river travelers as they headed toward new challenges and new lives in the expanding nation. Indian canoes, flatboats, and steamboats carried increasing traffic, both passenger and freight, along these Ohio “Gateway” shores. Many of these early craft were built locally and local residents served as crewmen. Products from farms and ceramics from this city’s pioneer potteries were shipped from this site. The wharf area also served as a landing place for many of the early English potters who came here to ply their trades and, in the process, create a defining industry. The river continues to play an important role in industrial and recreational capacities.
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In December 1772, Brother David Zeisberger and his followers began the construction of Schoenbrunn schoolhouse. The school was built in the Tuscarawas Valley on land given to Zeisberger in the spring of 1771 by the Delaware Native Americans as a Moravian mission to the Delaware. With the land, Zeisberger laid out the town of Schoenbrunn or “Beautiful Spring.” The school served Delaware Indian children, who were taught from special textbooks prepared in the Delaware and German languages by Zeisberger. John Heckewelder, who taught at the school, is recognized as the first schoolteacher in Tuscarawas County. The present reconstructed schoolhouse was dedicated on July 29, 1928 on the 155th anniversary of the completion of the school’s construction. The village can be seen just a few hundred yards south of this marker.
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Smith’s Burying Ground was established in 1814 when John Smith (born 1742), Revolutionary War Veteran, died and was buried here. John Smith and four of his sons and their families made the six week, six-hundred-mile journey from New Jersey with ox teams the previous year. John Clouse (1758-1822), Dutch immigrant and Revolutionary War veteran, is also buried here. (Continued on other side)
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Geauga Lake, a scenic destination for visitors to northeast Ohio, was initially named “Giles Pond” after settler Sullivan Giles (1809-1880). In 1856, the predecessor of the Erie Railroad stopped at “Pond Station,” spurring the area’s growth. In the 1880s, locals established picnic grounds, a dance hall, and other facilities for those seeking a country getaway. Picnic Lake Park, later Geauga Lake Park, opened in 1887 and thereafter offered rides, a roller rink, photo gallery, billiard hall and bowling alley, among other attractions. In 1888, the Kent House hotel opened on the southeast side of the lake. In the century that followed, more attractions were added, including SeaWorld of Ohio, and the park expanded. In 2007, the melodic sounds of the carousel and the echoing screams from the “Big Dipper” roller coaster ceased when the park closed. (Continued on other side)
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